Knit hosiery



R. W. SCOTT April 28, 1931.

v Filed May 17, 1922 q j r Mr 4r, r? J @fbx/@g Patented Apr, 28, 1931UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROBERT W. SCOTT, OF BABYLON, NEW YORK,ASSIGNOiR TO SCOTT AND WILLIAMS, INC., i

F NEW YORK, N. Y., A. CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS KNIT HosIERYApplication led May 17,

" toe pockets in plain fabric sections, having integral ribbed fabricportions beginning at a different place in the front and in the backof'the stocking or other garment, and hav' ing an im roved demarkingstructure between the ribbed fabric and the plain fabric; and alsohaving, if desired, parts narrowed and widened appropriately, as bychanges in the length or width of thestitch changes in yarn or both; andalso having, if desired, an automatically-made integral welt.

The invention also includes the art of making fabrics of the kindmentioned in such a way as to facilitate the manufacture in oneoperation, and especially to so devise the operations as to permit themto bethe automatic function of a knitting machine having appropriateknitting, tensioning, yarn feed-v ing and control devices for thispurpose; for

example, the machine of my application Serial No. 559,506, filed May 9,1922 (Patent No. 1,641,554, September 6, 1927).

In carrying out my invention I prefer to provide for knitting the`stocking herein shown and described as one preferred example only offabrics corresponding to the invention in such a way as to begin thestocking at the toe end, and preferably to form each stocking as aseparate piece of fabric begun on the bare needles of the machine, andcast off before beginning another stock- In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. l is a diagram elevation of a stocking showing one typical exampleonly of the new 4article of hosiery;

Fig. 2 is a detail showing the stocking foot before looping, asdelivered by the machine;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the top of the leg and the weltof the stocking shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged outside or face view 1922. Serial No. 561,634.

diagram of the fabric at vthe junctures of plain and ribbed knitting,for instance at the areas 27a and 27b of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the welt showinga modifiedproduct and a modified way of finishing the welt.

Stockings forwinter or sporting wear, or for children, are mostsatisfactory when made of ribbed fabric, which combines elastic Yproperties insuring comfort and a good fit with an excellent appearance.Stockings of the general type referred to have heretofore been made onhand-operated circular orl f straight machines, or by transfers offabric from one machine to another, or from one set of needles toanother set in the same machine, and thereforeby relatively difficultand expensive operations.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 4, these illustrate a preferred product andcertain steps in the art or method'of producing it. As shown, the'stocking 1 comprises a seamless foot having the usual narrowed andwidened plain fabric toe t, a plain fabric ring t next to the toe; aplain fabric sole S and ribbed instep p, (which may have any desirednumber of wales proportionally to the total number of wales anywhere inthe product) the usual heel h, and a short section of plain fabric habove the heel.

The leg L is of rib knitting, preferably of uniform pattern such asQ-'and-l or.4and1,

and at the junctures 7" and r2 between ribbed `and plain, a sharp lineof demarcation free from holes, of strong fabric and of attractiveappearance, is secured by a structure presently explained. The leg ispreferably fashioned at the calf by predetermined variation in thelength of stitch, and the -upper end of the stocking is provided with awelt W of plain fabric of desired length, ending in a cast-off sectionW1 of ribbed fabric,

'Fig 3, which may, if desired, be sewed to insure durability on thelines @o3-w3, wl-wz, or both.

In some cases, where a turned welt of `ribbed fabric only is desired,the plain-fabric welt W2, Fig. 5, made by the automatic operation of themachine, may be very short to serve only as a guide for use in applyingthe inturned upper end of the leg L, at the predetermined length fixedby the machineplaced welt, to the pins of a looper', in order to sewdown by the looper seam w a portion of the inturned upper end fw? of theribbed leg to form the welt. When this is done, the

' upon a circular rib knitting machine by operations which can beautomatically conl trolled yto insure uniformity of` product.

p Referring now to Fig. 2, in the preferred operation the stocking isbegun, by first forming a selvage s on rthe bare needles, for instanceby the method explained in my reissued Patent No. 13,752, June 16, 1914,and

edge'a ainst raveling in the direction inv by then making loopers rounds1' of plain fabric before beginning the toe t. The selvage -made at thebeginning of the loopers rounds is, according to my said patent, a fastwhich itting proceeds.

, The ribbed. fabric beginning respectively at\the 'structures r1 and r2includes added wales w1, wz, w3, etc. Fig. 4, which may be produced bycausing dial needles to enter 'the spaces between any desired recurrent'pairs of cylinder needles upon which only the plain fabric sections h,t, S, h1, etc. are

I knit. lTo make the structures r1 and 12 this 35v entrance of needles`to'knit the added wales w1, m2, etc. is in respect -to and` t0 takeloops z in .courses 75, r9, into which the loops of u'cked(accumulated-loop) partial courses 1'3, 1-4` are detained to be cast offwith the knit o loops 1" of the courses rs. The tucked loops areindependent in number, in the parts .of

Ithe course containing them, of the number of vrib wales v1 etc., butpreferably are in such number as to occur-always inane or the other v ofthe wales flanking that containing an initial dial loop z. The-leg of aloopuv17 thus always extends across the eyelet-hole which `would-otherwise be formed.

For forminglthe selvage s, alternate needles of one of the two series,cylinder and dial, are arranoed to be active and inactive, theriaindefbeing ever-active. The tuck stitch inthe demarking structuresr1. and r2 jare formed on these occasionally active needles by causingthese needles to retain the loops r until after having taken the yarnback-Wale loops" z being drawn in the next following course. i

v I The partial courses of tuck stitchesiin the plain fabric sections atTl'an'd r preceding the be ning of ribbed/fabric notonly have the e ectof closing the Aeyelet-hole which would otherwise ya pear by the legs r"of the second loop of t e tuck stitches, but these relativelyfrequent'tuck stitches so placed cause an outwardly raised line at theedge between ribbed and plain fabric of pleasing appearance, serving toset off the ribbed fabric from the plain fabric.

. By causing the instep p of ribbed fabric to be knit side by side withthe sole S, the

tubular foot comprised of these two parts of the fabric can be madesatisfactorily narrow as compared withv the top of the leg,

although the stocking contains an unchanged number of face wales(cylinder needle wales) throughout. By the described way of knitting,the increased width of the fabric, e. g., for the foot, causedbyintroducing intoit the back or dial wales w1 etc. at the part p isdeprived of effect to widen the Ifoot byjlimiting the number of wales w1in the foot to a segment p containing less than half the whole number offace-wales, and corresponding to a portion only of the walescomplementary to those inthe heel and toe. For

example, the sole section S may contain 96 c wales, of plain loops; theinstep section p may contain 64 face-wales and 18 back wales; the legmay contain 160 face-wales and 40 back Wales, and the heels and toes maybe formed on a segment 80 wales wide. A short stitch for the foot andankle and a longer stitch for the leg L, accompanied, if desired, bychange of yarn to a heat/ier yarn, will now produce a narrow vfoot andwide leg.

As heretofore made, so far as I am, aware, stockings having ribbedinsteps have been produced only by transfer operations between theneedles of the respective series used for ribbed knitting. This is sodifficult and expensive an operation, or requires such an expensiveandcomplex machine for machine production, as to have left the marketwithout any ribbed-leg stockings also having ribbed insteps, except veryexpensive stockings made by hand, or by manuallygoverned machines.

`The compromise usual in the art is a stockin having a ribbed leg and aplain foot, the ribing'jbeginning vor ending all around the leg at thesame point above the heel. These stockings are not satisfactory for wearwith low shoes. This invention provides a satisfacto stocking in whichthe ribbed pattern exten s unaltered over all parts of the stockinexposed in wear.

` v at I claim isz-4 y 1. A tubular knit fabric partly ribbed and partlyplain 'having ribbed fabric following lof the next succeeding course,the initiala plam fabric, rtion in the direction of the length of theabric, the ribbed fabric at one circumferential segment ofthe tubebeginning' at a different point in the length of the tube from theribbed fabric in another cir- 2. A knit stocking having a leg and instepof circular-knit rib fabric, and having an integrally formed foot withaplain fabric sole, the plain fabric wales being continuous.

throughout the stocking and containing segmental courses containing tuckstitches, the initial loops of the back-wales of the rib fabric instepand the back of the rib fabric leg being respectively taken'fromsegments of circular plain-fabric courses next following the tuckedsegmental courses and near the toe, and above the heel. Y

3. A knit stocking having a leg and instep of circular-knit rib fabric,-and having an inv tegrally formed foot with a plain fabric sole,

the initial loo s of the introduced backwales ofthe ri fabric instep andthe back of the rib ,fabric leg being respectively taken from segmentsdf circular plain-fabric courses having therein tuck stitches adapted tomark off the lrib fabric and close the initialloop eyelet-holes.l A

' 4.` A knit stocking having a leg. and instep of circular-knit ribfabric, and having an integrally formed foot with a plain fabric sole,the initlal loops of the back-wales of the rib fabric instep and theback of the rib fabric leg being respectively taken from segments ofcircular pla' therein tuck stitches a apted to mark oil' the rib fabricand close the initial-loop eyeletholes, the back-wales of the ribfabric` having u fewer initial loops than there are tuck stitches in thepreceding plain fabric segment where the said initial loops occur.4

5. A circular-knit seamless stocking having the usual heel and toe, aribbed instep and a ribbed leg, and a plain fabric sole, the

fabric having the same number of face-wales throughout, the back-walesbeing initiated in succession to the plain fabric near the toe and abovethe heel respectively for the ribbed instep and the back of the leg ofthe stocking, the courses preceding the initial loops containin stitchesaccumulated by vtucking* in wales anking the initial stitches of theback-wales.

6. A stocking .blank having in succession av l starting selvage, loopersrounds, a narrowed and widened toe ;v a plain-fabric sole and aribbed-fabric instep side by side; a narrowed and widened heel; and aleg ribbed all around, terminating in a tubular plain fabric welt andfollowing courses of ribbed fab- 50 ric, the initial loops of theback-wales of the ribbed fabric being drawn from segments of coursesofthe plainfabric having loops intei-locked with detained loops from apre1 ceding course. 7. A stocking partly ribbed and partly vplain havinga seamless tubular foot and seamless ribbed tubular leg comprisingthroughout face wales of knit loops, a part of a course only` at oneplace inthe length of the stocking next to ribbed fabric containing tuckstitches in said face wales,and a course elsewhere in the length of thestocking next to ribbed fabric containing tuck stitches in said facewales on the other side of the stocking from said part of a course.

8. A stocking having a seamless tubular foot and seamless tubular leg, apart of a course only at one place in the length of the course next tosaid tucked partial courses being ribbed. Signed by me at New York, NewYork, this eighth day of Ma 1922.

RO ERT W. SCOTT.

-fabric courses having

